Phrases grouped by where you actually need them, because that is how you will look for them: standing at a stall, sitting in a clinic, or holding a form at immigration. Every phrase shows Thai script, transliteration and meaning, and you can hide the transliteration from the control in the header once you start reading.
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Two habits sit underneath almost every polite exchange in Thailand, and knowing them makes the phrases below work far better than saying them cold.
The first is the politeness particle. A man ends a sentence with ครับ (khráp) and a woman with ค่ะ (khâ). It is not a word you translate — it marks the whole sentence as courteous, and leaving it off with a stranger sounds blunt rather than neutral. Most rows below are written in the male form; swap the last syllable if you are a woman, and read the lesson on the particles once.
The second is how you address the person. The Thai word คุณ (khun) works like Mr or Ms in front of a name, and doubles as a fairly formal “you”. In ordinary speech, though, Thai people usually reach for a kinship term instead: พี่ (phîi) for someone older than you, น้อง (náwng) for someone younger. That is why a waiter is called พี่ (phîi) rather than คุณ (khun), and it is the single most useful thing to know about Thai greetings that a phrasebook will not tell you. There is a whole lesson on it in how to address people.
If you only ever learn twenty Thai words and phrases, learn these. They are not the twenty a holiday phrasebook picks: there is no “where is the beach” here. These are the useful Thai phrases that come up in an ordinary week of living in Thailand — buying something, paying, getting out of a taxi, and saying you did not follow what was just said to you.
| Thai | Sound | Meaning | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| สวัสดีครับ | sà-wàt-dii khráp | Hello. The all-purpose Thai greeting, at any hour. more like this | |
| สวัสดีค่ะ | sà-wàt-dii khâ | Hello, said by a woman. more like this | |
| ขอบคุณครับ | khàwp-khun khráp | Thank you. more like this | |
| ขอโทษครับ | khǎw-thôot khráp | Excuse me. Sorry. more like this | |
| ผมไม่เข้าใจครับ | phǒm mâi khâo-jai khráp | I do not understand. more like this | |
| พูดช้าๆอีกทีได้ไหมครับ | phûut cháa-cháa ìik thii dâi mǎi khráp | Could you say that again slowly? more like this | |
| เท่าไหร่ครับ | thâo-rài khráp | How much is it? more like this | |
| ไม่เผ็ดครับ | mâi phèt khráp | Not spicy. more like this | |
| ห้องน้ำอยู่ไหนคะ | hâwng-náam yùu nǎi khá | Where is the toilet? more like this | |
| เช็คบิลด้วยครับ | chék-bin dûai khráp | The bill, please. more like this | |
| น้ำเปล่าครับ | náam-bplào khráp | Plain water, please. more like this | |
| เอาอันนี้ครับ | ao an-níi khráp | I will take this one. more like this | |
| ไม่เอาถุงครับ | mâi ao thǔng khráp | No bag, thank you. more like this | |
| ไม่เป็นไร | mâi bpen rai | It is nothing. No worries. Never mind. more like this | |
| อยู่ที่ไหนครับ | yùu thîi-nǎi khráp | Where is it? more like this | |
| จอดตรงนี้ครับ | jàwt dtrong-níi khráp | Stop here. more like this | |
| ตรงไปครับ | dtrong bpai khráp | Go straight ahead. more like this | |
| มีไหมครับ | mii mǎi khráp | Do you have it? more like this | |
| ช่วยด้วย | chûay dûay | Help! more like this | |
| แล้วเจอกันใหม่นะคะ | láew joe gan mài ná khá | See you again. more like this |
That is the floor, not the ceiling. The point of the situations below is that you stop needing a general list of Thai phrases at all: you open the situation you are about to be in, and learn the six that matter there.
New here? Start with how Thai works, or read the lesson on polite particles, which every phrase below uses.